Rooster with serious frostbite. Please help!

[rjgchicken]

My 4 year old rooster has come down with serious frostbite on his feet and toes during this cold winter. The coop just wasn't warm enough for him to keep warm I guess, but the other 8 chickens all seem to be doing fine. I need help with the rooster! One of his legs is frostbitten halfway up the leg. The skin is detached and you can see the bone. There's quite a bit of blood but I'm surprised because I would have expected more. I cleaned the wound and wrapped it but I don't think it will heal on its own. Should I amputate? If so, how would I do that? The entire foot is dead and cold and I doubt he has feeling in it but when I try to wrap the wound he squawks like he's in pain. I hate that it hurts him but I don't want to kill him unless I absolutely have to. I will need to do this myself because it grosses my family out but maybe I can convince one of them to hold him for me. Otherwise he seems healthy and is eating and drinking normally...he is just losing blood and he is upset with his limited mobility. How should I proceed? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Percheron chick]

I would probably do the kind thing to just cull him now. I think it's a loosing battle. I had a guinea cock that ended up spending the night in the snow after an owl attack, Same thing happened to him but it progressed quickly, 2 days, and he was dead.

 

[rjgchicken]

Is there any chance that the leg might just fall off? I just don't think the bone is frostbitten just the outer part so I don't know if the bone would fall off or not. I really don't want to cut it off if I don't have to but I want to minimize the pain for him.

 

[rjgchicken]

Thank you for the response. I don't think I could handle culling him myself though and this has been going on for a few weeks but it was just last night that the skin broke. Not sure if he could survive this on his own but he doesn't seem to want to give up.

 

[rjgchicken]

Not sure if pictures will help but i have some. He is in my cat carrier with towels as I have nowhere else to put him other than the coop. The bone is bandaged right now but you can see the badly frostbitten foot. The other foot has frostbitten toes but nothing major I think they should heal soon.

 

[Percheron chick]

If it's been going on for weeks and it's just him, i would question if it's frostbite or not. A cold coop is not reason for frostbit feet. He covers his feet at night with is body. I would expect some signs on his comb and waddles even with his pea comb if you had humidity problems in the coop. Is there any heat or infection? Are you giving him anything? If the bone is exposed, how are you keeping it clean? Can you take another pix of his feet? Too out of focus to see what's going on.

My cock lost a few toes the 2nd day, couldn't roost that night and was dead in the morning.

 

[rjgchicken]

Thank you so much! I was hearing a lot of banging from the cage and I went to check and the foot has just completely come off with about an inch of the leg. Any ideas on how to clean/bandage it? I still think an infection is likely but he doesn't seem to be in much pain I just want to minimize the risk of infection as much as possible.

 

[mebuff daisy]

How is your rooster ?

 

[Percheron chick]

Wow, that was fast. At least you didn't have to amputate, I would give him some aspirin. The only dosage I can find is .15% in ration whatever that means. Try dissolving and aspirin in water and give him a few drops. If you have liquid children's that would work great. I would go ahead and put him on some type of antibiotic. I don't know my chicken antibiotics but I can look them up. I would do what you can with cleaning the stump. Probably doesn't want to be messed with but a betadine or chlorohexidine (nolvasan) scrub is always the way to go in my book (things every horse owner would have on hand). If you have clumps of dried ick, slather some on, wrap it and let it soften than try cleaning it later. You should be able to wrap it well (make a cast/boot) and go up and over his spur. 2" vet wrap with a little gauze wrap or cotton underneath is all you need. Time to run to the store.

 

[Percheron chick]

I'm not finding any good information but I'm thinking more foot rot than frostbite. Probably got a cut and an infection has set in. I came up with Di-methox (sulfa) in a powder form.